Lincecum starts slow, picks up steam

For Tim Lincecum, the road back to the big leagues started near where it all began.

At Cheney Stadium, 40 miles southwest of his hometown of Bellevue, Washington, the two-time National League Cy Young Award winner returned to game action for the first time in nearly a year. It took a little while, but Lincecum eventually found his groove.

The right-hander allowed three runs on three hits and three walks while striking out five over five innings, but retired nine of the last 11 men he faced as Triple-A Salt Lake fell at Tacoma, 6-1. The start marked his debut in the Angels system.

"It was good to get my feet wet," Lincecum said. "I didn't go in with any kind of crazy expectations. I just wanted to go out there, throw strikes with my pitches. I didn't throw as many as I'd like to. I didn't establish the strike zone as well as I'd like to, but I started to get better as the game went on."

Tacoma loaded the bases against the University of Washington product in the first inning, and Lincecum balked in the Rainiers' first run of the game before yielding a sacrifice fly to Mike Zunino. In the second, the 31-year-old issued a leadoff walk to Daniel Robertson, who stole second and scored on Tyler Smith's single two batters later.

"You start to trust your stuff as the game goes on," Lincecum said. "You always wonder how it's going to play beforehand just because I haven't seen enough hitters to know how my stuff is going to play. With that, you kind of go in with a question mark. As the game goes on, it dictates. You reestablish yourself and get back to being the kind of guy that I would like to be."

Lincecum hasn't toed a Major League rubber since last June 27 for San Francisco and he underwent season-ending hip surgery in September. On Thursday night, butterflies were the only physical issue he faced.

"The third inning is when I kind of settled in and things started clicking," he said. "I started throwing more quality strikes and getting hitters to swing at the pitches that I wanted by expanding the zone. Before then, it was a lot of nerves, a lot of feelings, a little bit overwhelming wondering what the next play would be or where I'd need to be or what's going to happen. I was getting a little bit ahead of myself instead of just worrying about the play at hand. But three innings went by, and it was like riding a bike. I fell back into my old rhythm."

The 2006 10th-overall pick retired the Rainiers in order in the third and fourth, fanning three, and worked out of a jam in the fifth. Lincecum walked Ketel Marte with one out and hit Chris Taylor with a pitch before retiring Efren Navarro and Zunino to close his night.

"It's kind of hard not to acknowledge [the nerves], because it's hard not to care," he said. "You get back out there, you want to compete, you want to do well for your team, but you're out there for a purpose to get yourself better and move myself towards getting back on that big league team."

The proximity to surroundings that launched Lincecum's career to four National League All-Star appearances and three World Series titles didn't hurt.

"It's kind of funny how it worked out coincidentally," he said. "It all worked out for my favor. The Angels organization has been extremely accommodating with me and making sure I get what I needed. Being back at home definitely made this first experience of being back out there on the field a better one for me."

The Bees couldn't give Lincecum enough offensive support to get their starter off the hook, but the righty left Thursday night seeing the positives of a long journey back to the mound and eyeing his next steps toward Anaheim.

"I just need to throw more strikes," he said. "My stuff showed that I can play, and I can get outs in the zone. As long as I stay there, that's going to benefit me the most. I know you get in trouble when you get behind in counts, you put guys on base. I know I've been able to get out of situations like that, but you try to limit those situations so you can go deeper into games. That's what I'm looking for."